Bala, you can feel the sweetness when you utter this name. She is such a sweet girl form of the all-powerful goddess sri Maha Tripurasundari. Sri Bala’s worship is a stepping stone to Sri Vidhya Upasana. Tripura rahasyam, a treatise on Saktham, highlights that goddess Maha Tripura sundari is indulgent in child-play as she portrays herself in the form of a little girl.

In Lalitha Sahasranamam both “bala”(965 mantra) and “leela vinodhini” (966th mantra) reconfirms the child status of the para brahma swarupini. The divine play of the goddess is none other than the triple functions of creation, preservation and destruction of the prapancham(world). Sri Bala’s story is enunciated in “lalithopakyanam” and illustrated as a youthful princess of a kingdom as an ever-green 9 year old.

Why Sri Bala is worshipped as a child deity? Because, with children we can be close. We tend to take liberty with them. Our affection is abundant with children. With Bala, the child we can open our heart, do the “sweet talk” with her and indulge in her innocence. The more you look at her as the sweet child, the more your heart abounds with joy. You become a child yourself and turn out to be childish.

What could a child do? A question often arises in our mind. In our puranas, surapadman asked Balamurugan what he could do and met his fatel end. Lord Krishna, in his child form destroyed kakasuran and boodhana. In Lalitha Sahasranamam, it was the child Bala, who annihilated the 30 sons of panda asura in the 74th line “pandaputhra vadod yukta, Bala Vikrama Nandita” So we should not take children as playful or easygoing types because a child, till its desired task is accomplished, doesn’t give up.